Wacona Students Make a Difference

Wacona Elementary School is hosting a three week trial run of a Styrofoam recycling program using equipment from All Georgia Styrofoam Recycling. If the recycling program proves to be cost-effective for the school system, it could be used in the other schools as well. Wacona is excited to be hosting this trial run and is proud that some former Wacona students may have played a role in bringing this program to Ware County.

In 2009, a group of students at Wacona signed up to participate in a new after-school club called Georgia Movie Academy.  These students learned the basics of creating a three-minute movie on a topic of their choice.  The Ware County School System had recently begun using Styrofoam lunch trays and this group was concerned about the effects of the trays on the environment. Their movie, A Day in the Life of a Styrofoam Tray, won the Best Movie award at both the district and state level in a competition hosted by the Georgia Educational Technology Consortium.

Two years later, Stephanie Taylor, Director of Food Services for the Ware County School System, attended a conference and was impressed by the Styrofoam recycling program being demonstrated by All Georgia Styrofoam Recycling.  She remembered seeing the movie created by the Wacona students and wanted to bring this recycling program to Ware County.  Based on the large number of students at Wacona and the environmental concerns shown in the movie, Wacona was selected as the test site for the program.

Instead of throwing the entire tray in the trash can, the students are taught to “Flip It, Smack It, Stack It.”  When they reach the trash can, they flip their tray over, smack it on the rim of the can to remove any remaining food, and stack it in the recycling bin.  The trays are later put into a large machine that melts the Styrofoam down into a hard rectangular cube. 

In the photo, Lee Bryan is showing Mrs. Brasington and students Makaila Smith and Anna Marie Helms the cube that was made from 994 styrofoam trays.  The cubes are sold to other companies that use them to make fuels, flower pots, cement, and other things.

“A Day in the Life of a Styrofoam Tray” is available online and as a free download on iTunes.  It was created by former Wacona students Blake Crews, Taylor Davis, Brandon Foster, Zenobia Harris, Cindy Rowell, and Brandon Rowland.